"I've said what I needed to say in the courtroom."
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has wrapped up her testimony in a bribery trial for Pat Sorbara, her former deputy chief of staff and Liberal campaign director, and Gerry Lougheed, a local Liberal organizer, who are charged with bribery under the Election Act. Both have pleaded not guilty.
She was testifying in court today that she didn't think a man who wanted to run for the Liberals in a 2015 Sudbury byelection was the best candidate since he had just lost in the recent general election.
Sorbarra and Lougheed are accused of offering would-be candidate Andrew Olivier a job or appointment to get him to step aside for Wynne's preferred candidate in the byelection, Glenn Thibeault, who is now the energy minister.
Wynne herself is not facing charges and today her lawyers sent Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown a letter demanding he retract comments they say suggest the premier is standing trial.
Wynne is testifying that she thought the Liberals should have held onto the Sudbury riding in the 2014 election, given that they had held it for nearly two decades at that point.
She says that led her to believe that Olivier was not as strong a candidate as she had thought.